Balancing On Knive's Egde
by chickfly317
Summary: I love twists and turns so it's never going to be a straight forward.Takes place just as they escape from Malfoy manor. Bellatrix didn't throw the knife, BUT WHY? It will get darker in a couple of chapters, so be warned!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, I've had this idea for a while now but haven't found the time to write it until now. This is my first Harry Potter fic so fingers crossed it will be a success. I love lots of twists and turns so it's never going to be a straight forward. Please let me know if it's too confusing I know what's going on because I made it up but I'm not sure that I've made it clear! It takes place at the end of the seventh film just as they escape from Malfoy manor the only difference being that Bellatrix didn't throw the knife so Dobby's not dead. It will get darker in a couple of chapters, so be warned! Hope you enjoy ****. **

**Hermione, the first night in shell cottage.**

I felt it the second it happened. I felt the connection with the knife instantly, most people would shake the feeling off saying it was down to the pain or trauma of what had just happened to me; but not me. I knew. I'd been trying to place where I'd seen her knife before; trying to distract myself from what was happening to me. Then when I felt the connection I knew, it hit me. I knew after that if we managed to escape when I would have to run. It broke my heart to leave them, but they had to be safe, I had to protect them.

I knew that after we'd escaped she'd start searching and it wouldn't take long for her to find us, not now she could trace me. We were magically connected now and the only way that would end was…

Shivers snaked up my spin; I couldn't finish that sentence not even in my head. I had to leave. I was putting them in danger every second I stayed with them but I knew they would never let me go willingly. So I planned every second, whilst I waited, until I was sure they were deep in sleep and I could flee.

It was rain, more than raining, pelting it down, for once the whether suited my mood. My tears mixed with the rain water the icy drops sliding down my face. I just hoped they would forgive me for what I was about to do. I was running, not daring to look back. The physical excises helping to free me from my thoughts but I couldn't keep it up for long. My body was still screaming from the pain that it had endured earlier. I stopped eventually gasping for breath and turned to see that I hadn't gotten as far way from the house as I had thought. Quickly I pulled out my wand and with a pop I was gone.

I reappeared in Scotland, not far from the coast, in a place I went on a school trip to before I went to Hogwarts. I was exhausted I didn't care about putting up enchantments; they would do no good now anyway. Instead I slumped down under the nearest tree, my spine resting along the trunk. I couldn't stop my self now; I had nothing else to think of and I was too tired to try so I just let my mind go over what had happened.

**Earlier at Malfoy Manor.**

My mind raced. I'd been trying to place where I'd seen her knife before; trying to distract myself from what was she was doing to me. It didn't work very well as she dug the knife into my arm again and I let out a scream of pain, too tired to care who heard me now.

At first I'd tried to be brave; to muffle the screams, show that I wasn't scared and it worked, for a couple of seconds before she hit me with the crucio curse. After that there was always pain; some deep and sharp and in-between that it was duller but still worse than any pain I'd experienced before. I had no energy left and she was leaning over me her eyes dancing wildly with excitement demanding an answer about the sword. I was drained I couldn't even think enough to open my mouth let alone answer her but still she leaned over me her weight pressing down on my middle feeling like it was going to tare me apart. Her face was inches from mind her breath hot making me force my head backwards against the hard wooden floor trying to get away from it. All I wanted to do in that moment was die. There wasn't room for thoughts of Ron and Harry all I could feel was pain and all I could think of was Bellatrix.

"How did you get into my fault?" She screeched at me even though her nose was millimetres from mine. I don't know how I managed to open my mouth; I couldn't even think but somehow out came a quivering lie.

"It's a copy, just a copy."

She stood taking her unbearable weight with her but I still felt too heavy to move, my mind still reliving the pain I'd experienced and was experiencing, my memory going over and over every little detail of what she had done to me.

There was commotion around me but I didn't care. I barely heard it until I was dragged to my unwilling feet by my hair.

"Stop," she shouted and everything fell deadly silent. Her cheek brushed against mine. I was repulsed but had no way of getting way from her. I moved slightly needing to get away when suddenly I felt the cold, familiar and sharp edge of her knife at my throat.

That's when I felt the connection; the knife and I, we were connected. It hit me where I'd seen her knife before and I knew that if we managed to escape when I would have to run. If I could have laughed then I would have. I couldn't even support my own weight but I was making plans to run from the only people I had left in the world. It broke my heart to leave them, it really did but I would have to if I didn't want to be the cause of their death.

I jumped at the sound of wands hitting the ground, I had no ideas who's they were. I was trying to care but spots had started dancing in front of my eyes and I was hit with a wave of dizziness forcing me to lean into Bellatrix for support. I could feel her body heat burning against me and I suddenly I wanted nothing more in the world than to be away from her whatever it took. But before I could even act on this sudden need I was pushed from Bellatrix's arms but as I tried to step forwards my legs couldn't support me and fell from underneath me. I fell. I closed my eyes expecting to harshly hit the ground but I didn't; a pair of strong arms caught me and pulled me close. From that moment I felt save. I was still in immense pain but strangely now it was more bearable. I leant into them knowing exactly who's they were and allowed him to move me to where ever we were going, not that I could have stopped him or anyone at that point.

Suddenly it was cold and bright. Salty air whipped around me, burrowing me from the tunnels of pain my mind was stuck in.

"Hermione your alright, we're safe, we're all safe." Harry's voice got closer to me bringing my other senses with him. We were on a beach, sat in the wet sand. Ron and I were stumped together, his arms protectively around me holding onto me so tightly it was like he would never let go. Harry was beside us now hugging us both whilst quickly scanning us both for injuries.

I was shaking, my mind still trying to come to terms with what had just happened to us. My eyes weren't fixed on Harry or Ron. I didn't want to look at them. I knew that they had heard my screams and I didn't want to see the look in their eyes and see whatever they were feeling, I wasn't ready, I was barely coping with my own emotions. Instead my eyes fixed on Dobby. He was stood a couple of meters away from us watching us his big eyes filled with concern. I rapidly looked down at the sand in front of me after seeing in his eyes exactly what I was trying to avoid.

"Ron, Harry, Hermione?" I didn't look round just stayed looking down, inspecting the sand. I felt Ron turn, with out releasing his grip on me, to look at his brother. We were in silence after that, nobody knowing quiet what to say. I felt eyes burning me and I was sure that everyone was watching me. I didn't know what to do. If I looked up then I would have to try and convince everyone that I was ok and at the moment I just didn't have the energy to that. So instead I stayed perfectly still and continued to lean all my weight on Ron and to gaze at the same spot of sand.

**Ron**

It was excruciating listening to Hermione's screams. I wanted desperately to make them stop; to help her, save her from the torture she was having to endure. I felt so useless hearing those screams, she was in so much pain and I couldn't do anything to make it stop. Then, out of the blue Dobby appeared and I've never been so thankful in my life. I was more than shocked when dobby knocked out Peter Petigrew I never thought him capable of it but my attention quickly turned back to our rescue and escape attempt. Harry and I crept up the stairs. We could hear Bellatrix talking. Stopping just above the top step we peered over the top and onto the scene in front of us. My eyes immediately found Hermione and rested on her lifeless form. There was a pang in my heart looking at her. She looked so small and vulnerable I just wanted to pull her into my arms and make everything better again. I glance over to Bellatrix she was talking to the goblin.

"Who got into my vault, who stole it, who, stole it, well?" she demanded an answer.

I didn't want to talk my eyes of Hermione but I needed to know where Bellatrix was. She was getting angrier her voice getting lower and lower.

"There is no place safer than Gringots," the goblin said, he sounded pissed that she was questioning how well they protected their bank.

"Liar," she screamed slashing his face with her knife.

"Consider your self lucky goblin, the same won't be said for this one." She turned and lured down at Hermione.

"Like hell," I said jumping form our hiding spot unwilling to let Bellatrix lay another hand on her. Harry quickly followed and we began fight our way towards Hermione.

"Stop," Bellatrix shouted and Hermione let out a gasp of pain and then everything fell deadly silent. Harry and I both stood stock still stunned that Bellatrix was holding a knife to Hermione's throat.

"Drop your wands. I said drop em." She shouted, desperate to get the upper hand and pressed the knife into Hermione's throat, to emphasis her point, creating little beads of blood to spill onto the blade and down her neck. Her face erupted into a devilish smirk when we dropped our wands. She had us right where she wanted us. "Pick them up Draco, now. Well, well, well look what we have here. It's harry potter, all bright and shiny and new again just in time for the dark lord." I looked to Harry and his face had gone back to normal.

"Call him. Call him." Bellatrix sounded excited, Draco didn't move to call him but Lucius proudly stepped forward and rolled up the sleeve of his robe. I didn't want to think about how doomed we were in that minuet.

Then there was a squeaking noise coming from above us and everyone in the room looked up towards the chandelier. It was creaking making a strange sound and then I noticed Dobby sitting on top of it tampering with its connection to the ceiling. I looked down to see where it would fall to find Hermione and Bellatrix stood directly underneath it. Dread filled every cell of my being as the chandelier started to fall. Hermione; I was running towards her. In Bellatrix's frantic motion to save herself she'd pushed Hermione from her and towards me and she fell into my arms the chandelier crashing loudly just centimetres behind us spraying the room with shards of glass. I pulled her into me further relieved to have her in my arms. I held onto that moment for a couple of seconds before reality came back to me and I moved us towards Harry so that we could make our escape. Hermione lent into me her legs unable to support her. I held onto her keeping her up right as we stood along side Harry the goblin and Dobby.

"Stupid elf you could have killed me," Bellatrix shouted at Dobby.

"Dobby never meant to kill only, maim or seriously injure." His brave, truthful voice filled the room. Narcissa moved her wand aiming a jinx at us but before the jinx left her wand Dobby snapped it out of her hands and into his.

"How dare you take a witches wand, how dare to defy your maters,"

"Dobby has no master. Dobby is a free elf, and Dobby had come to save Harry Potter and his friends." And with that we all lent into Dobby laying our hands on top of his and we disapparated to shell cottage.

The first thing I felt when we arrived was the salty sea air cutting at my cheeks. I was still tightly holding onto Hermione, although we were now sat, safe in the soggy sand.

"Hermione your alright, we're safe, we're all safe." Harry's voice got closer to us and I looked up to see him making his way towards us. He bent down when he got to us placing his arms around us before pulling back and inspecting us for injuries.

"Were ok," I whispered back. I knew Hermione was far from ok but we didn't have any life threatening injuries. I could feel Hermione shaking in my arms and my heart broke, how could this have happened? I looked down at her, as Harry was doing, to find her staring at Dobby. He was stood a couple of meters away from us watching us, his big eyes filled with concern. When I looked back at Hermione she was staring at the sand in front of her.

"Ron, Harry, Hermione?" I turned, never loosening my hold on Hermione, to look at Bill. Looking at him I could see that he was concerned but I could also see him trying to stop himself from asking questions. So for a while we were in silence. My eyes fell on Hermione and I thought about what had just happened. Then I looked up to find everyone else watching her as well, my eyes rested on Harry who was kneeling in front of us, also looking at Hermione but when he felt my eyes on him he looked up at me. His face was filled with sorrow and guilt. I gave him a grim look back before continuing to look at Hermione. I didn't know what to do.

"Come in side, you'll catch your death out here." Fleur's voice shouted over to us, she was stood somewhere behind us and sounded a lot like mum but with a French accent. I could here her walking towards us so I slowly started moving. Hermione made no attempt to move from where she was leaning against me but Harry realised this and started helping me move her to her feet.

**Shell cottage later that evening**

I was snapped from my memories by Harry. He had moved from his sleeping bag on the floor and was now opening the bedroom door.

"Where you going?" I whispered trying not to wake Mr Ollivander and Griphook.

"Air," he whispered back before continuing to exit the room. I got up slowly and followed him. I caught up to him in the hall, he was stood still, looking at Hermione's closed door.

"Do you think she's alright?" I knew he wanted reassurance that she would be but I couldn't stop replaying the day's events in my mind and every time I closed my eyes I could hear Hermione's screams. Instead of replying I stepped forward and opened the door revealing one peacefully sleeping girl in the darkness. I looked at Harry, who seemed more relaxed before stepping further into the room. Panic rose in me as I realised the person in the bed wasn't Hermione but Luna. I stepped further into the room searching all four corners for her but it was no use she wasn't there. Luna stirred and sat up, looking at us curiously.

"Luna, where's Hermione?" Harry sounded as panicked as I was. Luna turned to look at the empty space in the bed next to her were Hermione was meant to be, her face quickly turned from sleep filled to concerned.

"She could be down stairs have you checked," she sounded calmed than she looked. With out an answer we turned and rushed down stairs searching the rooms only to find them empty.

**So let me know what you think, good, bad? **


	2. Chapter 2

**I've skipped forwards three days for this chapter but then I'm going back and retracing steps. You might hate me for this chapter!**

**Draco**

I, Draco Malfoy couldn't believe what I was doing. I looked down at her lifeless body which was draped in my arms. How I wished that she would wake and give me another one of her snotty remarks anything would be better than what I was about to do; but now that could never happen. She couldn't come back from this; not like the time when she was petrified back in our second year at Hogwarts. We never even got to finish school, our time at Hogwarts was cut short but we'd both never returned for completely different reasons. Hers was to do good, to fight the good fight, whereas mine; I don't know why I left, mostly because my parents told me I was not going back, that I was meant for greater things but that didn't come from them. That's what they were told to say, they were told I was to stay home and so I did. How had it gotten to this? Why were they so weak that they couldn't stand up to him? Did they really believe in what he was doing?

I looked back down at her. She was the priced paid for their brainless devotion or shameless fear. I've never told anyone this but I was in the hospital wing whilst she was there petrified. I served a detention I'd received off McGonagall. Whilst I was in that room my mind had been solely focused on her, the mudblood. She was frozen; I hated her but she was so beautiful. She looked like porcelain, like she might break. Her features looked moulded in marble as the moonlight shone down on her through the large window behind her. How had it come to this?

I took a deep breath, looking ahead at the shabby shack I never thought I would ever willingly enter. I was stood at the boundary of the Weasley's house. It looked warm and cosy, even thought it was falling apart. It was the complete opposite from the house in which I grew up in but then so were the way the people who owned those houses raised their children.

I looked down at her face. It looked the same as that night in the hospital wing, a little older maybe but just as beautiful. The moon was out and I looked up at the sky. It was clear, not a cloud in sight and with the stars joining the moon as they created a magical light which the sun could never achieve. The light shone over the hills which surrounded the Weasley's making it look so peaceful, they had no idea what I was about to do to them.

When I first saw her the morning after they had escaped I couldn't help but be appalled by what I saw but now it didn't matter to me that her face was covered in blood and bruises, I saw through it, I see that kind of destruction everyday and it didn't make her any less stunning. But something about her made me think twice about the path I had chosen. Not that I'd had much of a choice in the matter it was already laid out for me; but still I hadn't regretted it until I was called out of my room to try and identify Harry Potter. I knew it was him straight away but I hesitated, something making me doubt handing them over and signing their death sentences. Why the sudden change of heart? I had no idea, all I know is that if anyone knew where I was now or what I was doing they wouldn't hesitate to kill me but I felt like I had to do this, I owed her this much. Then I took a deep breath before taking the first of many strides which led to the Weasley's pitiful house.

The Weasley's were all sat around the kitchen table listening hopefully to the radio broadcast when I burst through the front door. They were startled to say the least and one of the twins, being nearest to me, stood squaring up to me seeing just who had invaded their home. Then he noticed that I was holding something and he froze looking down into my arms at her lifeless body.

The Weasley's were frozen. They couldn't process what they were seeing. She was so obviously dead, they could see it. The colour of her skin and the way she was laid in my arms it gave it away instantly. She was meant to be safe, she was with them. What did this mean for Harry and Ron? I could see their thoughts, they were in shock, and for a while I stood staring back at the family that I had invaded bringing them awful news, their faces showing the horror and grief that they were feeling. They had the one thing I would never have from my family; love.

The radio was still playing in the back ground and there was her name. It wasn't an announcement after the normal list of missing or dead people. She was a wanted person and now that she had been eliminated people were meant to be safer.

"Today the death of one of Harry Potter's known associates, Hermione Granger had been confirmed. Although the ware bout of Harry Potter is still unknown everyone can rest a little easier tonight knowing that we are one step closer to finding him and eliminating him as a threat." The room was silent as the broadcaster moved on to a different subject.

She was so young, so brave; it wasn't fair. The broadcaster spoke as if the world was a better place now that she wasn't in it. Nothing was fair, Voldemort was taking control and every day their world turned a little bit darker, that was until today. Today it turned pitch black.

Not knowing what else I could do I placed her into the arms of the twin's who was stood in front of me.

"I'm sorry," I whimpered, cringing at the sound of my own voice. I'd never sounded so pathetic before, "I thought you could return her for me," and with that I turned and exited walking faster and faster until I broke into a run anxious to get to the boundary of the Weasley's so that I could disapparate out of there and hopefully leave my memories from the past couple of days here too. I knew that it was impossible but I couldn't help but hope. I didn't want to remember what had happened; I'd done the right thing and returned her to the Weasley's so that they could take her to her parents. At this point I didn't know what she had done to protect her family. That she had erased her self from their memories and then left her family in order to protect them. I didn't know that the Weasley's were the only family she had now. The Weasley's and Harry, she had nobody else.

I was ready for what ever punishment was coming my way when I returned. In their eyes I deserved everything I got. I was a traitor but it was the best thing I'd ever done and I was proud that I had the guts to do it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Back to the night of their escape from Malfoy Manor.**

**Hermione **

_I reappeared in Scotland, not far from the coast, in a place I went on a school trip to before I went to Hogwarts. I was exhausted I didn't care about putting up enchantments; they would do no good now anyway. Instead I slumped down under the nearest tree, my spine resting along the trunk. I couldn't stop my self now I had nothing else to think of and I was too tired to try so I just let my mind go over what had happened. _

I woke from my horrifying memories. It was dark in the forest, the morning sun barely rising above the horizon. I had no idea how long I had been sitting here in the darkness just replaying the events of yesterday over and over. Long shadows hung from the trees making the forest feel more daunting than it was. The wind was still and the silence that had surrounded me was bizarrely comforting. It was cold, as it always was this time of year, and I wondered how I had managed to keep so warm when everything else around me was covered in frost. Looking around I could see that I wasn't far away from the clearing. I sighed, my breath coming out in a white cloud.

I knew what I had to do; my only question was how he knew. He was so wise and knowledgeable and I'd always looked up to him, even if he was annoyingly cryptic and secretive. I'd never told anyone about our meetings, he was adamant that I could never tell anyone, not even Harry or Ron and now I knew why; our lives depended on it. I knew what the news would do to them, but this was the way it had to be. I wish it could have been different but this is the way things were and now I had no other choice.

I'd only spent several hours with him in his office trying to perfect the spell and potion, but I'd lost trace of the days and days I'd spent in Hogwarts library working on it myself. Now my time had run out and I had to take a leap of faith and trust our working and just hope that together we could have made it work.

I didn't want to think about what would happen if this went wrong. So instead I threw myself into my little bag rifling through it searching for the tiny glass bottle with a cork stopper. I pulled out books, clothes and several other little glass bottles but none of them contained the deep purple, metallic liquid that I was searching for. The items lay around my feet the pile growing bigger and bigger before my fingers brushed across cold, curved glass.

I bit my lip in anticipation as I took hold of the bottle. I pulled it out of the bag. My eyes confirmed that it was the one I was looking for before I roughly pushed the rest of the contents at my feet back into the bag. I picked my self up of the forest floor and walked towards the clearing in front of me.

The clearing was filled with flat rock under foot. Larger rocks stood along the furthest edge before the earth fell away. I moved closer to the edge. The cliff looked down over the beach and open sea. I leant back against one of the rocks. It was such a specula view and for a moment I just stood staring out at the vastness of the landscape in front of me. My thoughts quickly turned to Ron and Harry, had they noticed I had gone yet? I shook my head I couldn't think of them now, I had to do this before she found me, I couldn't be the reason they died and if I was being completely honest with myself I would rather die than see Bellatrix again and have her come anywhere near me. I shuddered at the thought of her near me, nobody had ever scared me as much as she did, not even Voldemort.

I had to do this; soon, now.

I had no idea how this was going to work or if it was going to work but I completely trusted Dumbledore and he had taught me this for a reason, so I hastily pulled out the stopper letting out the metallic smell coming from the potion. I knew the words by heart and they rang through my head as I pulled my self up onto the rock I was leaning against. I sat in the middle of it before swiftly tipping my head back and draining the purple contents.

"Slifier-magaress mogorder." I concentrated on pronouncing the words correctly as a warm, strange but painful feeling filled me. The pain increased, taking over me. My body ached, my skin burnt and slowly the world went black and I fell heavily onto the cold stone beneath me.

**Bellatrix**

The second they disappeared they room was left silent. Cissy and Luscious just stared at the spot in which they once stood. How could I be related to these people? I turned swiftly my dress swishing with my movement and strode confidently out of the room, I didn't get very far before Cissy rushed to catch up with me.

"What are we going to do?" she sounded scared. I stopped and stood opposite her.

"We are going to do nothing. I am going to sort this whole mess out. Be ready for my return, I will be bringing Potter back with me." I turned to walk away from her but stopped and turned my head back.

"If worse comes to worst I'll bring the mudblood back and then force Potter to come get her," and with that I was off striding down the corridor.

I entered my bedroom smiling; I knew there was no rush she couldn't get away from me this time. I was still clutching the knife tracing my fingers along the blade. Her blood was still on it, sticky and drying. I sunk back onto my bed lying my head down on the pillows. I'll give them half a day's head start, then all hell will be let loose. I could feel my heart beating faster at just the thought of what I was going to do when I went after them. I fell asleep dreaming of battles and blood, and her screams, her delicious screams.

I woke early excitement getting the better of me. I changed and pulled on my travelling cloak before disapparating from my room.

I appeared in a wooded area. I could feel her, she was close. I had made sure that I had apparated a distance away from them, to avoid walking into a trap but I highly doubted that they knew what I could do. That now, after I used that knife on her frail skin I could trace her and she would lead me directly to the Potter boy. She would help me bring her best friend down. I crooked smile crept across my lips as I took a moment to praise myself for being to cunning.

I wrapped my robe around me tighter, trying to keep the cold air out as I crept closer to her, keeping alert, wand in hand waiting to react if there was indeed a trap or I happen to be caught but I was no match for them. They might have gotten lucky yesterday but now the ball was in my court, they had no idea that I was coming and they were going to pay for escaping and making me look a fool.

As I stalked closer to my pray I sensed something was wrong. I caught sight of her. She was lying with her back to me on a large flat boulder at the edge of a cliff, which looked out over the sea. Even I couldn't deny how beautiful the place was. She was out in the middle of a wide open space and I couldn't see anyone else around her, Potter and Weasley would never have left her.

I lifted my wand and began to step carefully towards her. She hadn't moved a millimetre since I'd set eyes on her. I moved carefully around her keeping a wide birth and wand raised as her face came into view. Her eyes were open and glazed over. Someone had beaten me to it. She was already gone.

They had done a good job too but she looked like she had put up a fight. She had a big purple bruise on her left cheek and a cut above her right eye where blood had fallen from and matted into her hair. Other bruises and cuts covered her body and the smell of her blood sent shivers down my spine. The dark lord will be pleased and with no one else around to take the glory it would be mine. It was the perfect trap. As soon as Potter learnt of her death he would be filled with angry and the need for revenge and then come looking for us. The dark lord would really be pleased with me and with that I pulled her into my arms and apparated us both to Malfoy manor.

**So maybe there's hope for Hermione after all. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Harry**

Ron and I tried to convince ourselves that Hermione had just gone for a walk because she needed some air but after an hour of search the beach, garden and meadow we had to admit that she was gone. We returned to the house dragging our feet to find it in the same, dark and silent. We were thankful for this and set about finding everything we needed. The sun was rising over the sea by the time Ron and I were ready to set off to search for Hermione. Both of us were kicking ourselves for thinking that she was ok and we could leave her alone.

Then we were gone. We'd 'borrowed' another tent from Bill and Fleur and stocked on supplies, only leaving a note of gratitude and an apology in our place. We apparated straight to the forest of dean, although it seemed an obvious place to look we still hoped that she would have gone there because after that we didn't have a lot of other options. We quickly set up the tent and the enchantments around it before adventuring out looking for her. It was a cold and windy day and if we weren't looking for Hermione I could imagine the three of us sat around the fire talking about horcruxes and our ideas of where they were. We walked for hours, aimlessly looking for her just hoping that we'd be luck enough to stumble across her but by the time it got to two in the after noon our hope was fading fast. The fact that we would have to turn around soon and started heading back because if we went any further we wouldn't get back to the tent tonight just made our situation feel worse as we knew that we'd failed in find Hermione for today and that she would be out there somewhere alone.

We'd spent most of the day in silence barely exchanging more than ten words between us. All I could think about was where Hermione was and what she was doing hoping that she was safe and I knew that was all Ron could think about as well. To me it was so obvious how they felt about each other but neither of them could see how the other felt about them. It was a little frustrating but I wasn't sure if I was ready for the change that their relationship would bring to our friendship. It was selfish but we needed to find all the horcruxes and destroy them, time was running out and I couldn't help thinking that if their relationship blossomed whilst we were trying to do this they wouldn't be so focused on the task in hand and it might change the out come for the worst.

I sighed loudly indicating to Ron that it was time to turn around and head back. He nodded and I watched him search as far as his eyes could see hoping for a glimpse of her. He ducked his head admitting defeat for today before we both started trudging back.

**Draco**

I stood gawking when Auntie Bella apparated in holding a lifeless Hermione Granger in her arms. We were in the middle of breakfast when she made her entrance. Everyone immediately jumped up from the table excited and relieved. I however wasn't. I stood stock still, mouth open, an expression of horror on my face. I was even more horrified when she just threw her down on the floor at her feet like a piece of luggage. The back of my knees weakened slightly as her body collided with the hard marble floor.

My mother and father were by my auntie's side chatting to her like excited children at Christmas. I'd rarely seen them like this but whenever they were it never meant something good, in fact it was always something dire. I wasn't paying attention to them though my eyes were fixed on the broken Hermione Granger at their feet. She looked awful, even worse than when she left here yesterday.

Her skin was almost transparent and reminded me of the colour of a blue opal pendant that belong to my mother. She was covered in numerous cuts and bruise of all shapes and sizes and I could only imagine what Auntie Bella had put her through for her to get into that state. My auntie was never known for being compassionate or merciful.

I was suddenly fighting the urge to be sick and I fought it hard knowing that everyone around me would see it as a sign of weakness. I had no idea if she was dead or alive and the only way I could find out was to watch her chest carefully to see if she was breathing. Only part of me had stopped me from doing this. I wasn't ready to find out she was dead, although from the way she looked there was little chance she was still alive.

I held my breath looking carefully almost pleading her chest to rise and fall but it never did. I must have watched for over a minute before I couldn't deny it any longer; Hermione Granger was dead. I came from my thoughts and back into the room, back to the person how had killed her. Auntie Bella had her left sleeve rolled up and her wand pressed to her squirming black skull and snake. He was coming.

**Thanks for reading, hope you're enjoying it. I don't want to be too mean so I'm telling you that it's not the end of Hermione, she will be back. Thanks to everyone who reviewed they are GREALTY appreciated :D **


	5. Chapter 5

**Draco **

The doors to the dinning room were suddenly flung open but it wasn't a surprise, we knew he was coming and he loved to make an entrance. He swooped into the room, gliding towards my parents and auntie like a crow would on his prey. His large black cloak followed him like a large pair of crow's wings. The mood in the room changed immediately. There was no more bubbled excitement, only quiet stillness while they await their fate. Eagerly they stood side by side awaiting the praise they so desperately wanted, they stood in the middle of the room several meters from the door and all conversation halted to look at him as he approached them.

He stopped still a meter from them, his eyes a piercing ruby red. His cloak instantly stilled behind him and he stood tall and proud before them, like any dictator should. Auntie Bella was still stood in front of Hermione as he approached but when he stilled she jumped aside and revealed her battered, bruised and broken looking body. She wore an evil grin on her face as she looked up at Vol-He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named expectantly.

"I thought you had the boy. I said call me when you had the boy." His voice was loud and he sounded angry. I took a couple of steps backwards trying to blend into the wall.

"You did my lord," Auntie Bella half bowed before continuing, "but now he will come to you willingly. He will want revenge for the death of his girlfriend." She sneered as she used her arms to indicate that Hermione was that girlfriend, wow she was misinformed. Did she not get that all the yelling Weasel did for her meant that he loved her, and she was basically the sister Potter never had. Although Potter would still want revenge for her so in the end the plan was still the same.

He stood silently for a minuet thinking over how he could use Hermione's death to get him the upper hand.

"Does he know?" He questioned rather impatiently.

"No my lord, I thought you would like to take the pleasure from it." Auntie Bella sucked up to him.

"You have done well my child," this statement caused Auntie Bella to bow her head to him accepting his thanks, "How would you suggest I send him the news, a couple of fingers?" He looked at her expectantly ignoring everyone else in the room as she thought. Everyone's attention was on her as she thought but it didn't take long for a devilish smile to creep onto her lips.

"Make her death out to be a good thing that people should celebrate the fact that she's dead. He will hate the slashing of her memory more than anything else." Even I had to admit it was true. It would make Harry Potter's blood boil to think that people wouldn't remember her as his Hermione but as someone who was most wanted; who people thought was better of dead. I watched his reaction to her idea. He was surprised at first for the lack of blood and violence in her idea but then his thin lips form into a miniature smile which was hardly there but we had seen it. Then he opened his arms up facing his palms to the ceiling before sneering.

"Love will be his downfall."

**Harry**

After days of mopping around waiting and searching for Hermione Ron switched on the radio as he usually did at this time. Hermione had told me that it was his comfort blanket it helped reassure him that his family was safe and although it got on my nerves I bit my tongue because us fighting was never going to help us to find Hermione but every time he turned it on it reminded me more that she wasn't here with us to sit with me while he listened. So instead I resorted to listening with Ron trying not to think about what I would be doing if Hermione was here. As we listened to the names being read out of the dead and missing I got more and more angry and up set but how many name I knew and how long the list was. We were trying so hard to stop the deaths and the disappearances and to find the Horcruxes and destroy them but now with Hermione missing we hadn't spoken about them at all since she'd gone. All we wanted to do was find her, we had no idea what state she was in, mentally or physically and it just added to our worry. When they finally stopped reading out the names Ron moved to turn the radio off but stopped as he heard my name and we both turned to the radio listening intently to the strong male voice.

"Today the death of one of Harry Potter's known associates, Hermione Granger had been confirmed. Although the ware bout's of Harry Potter is still unknown everyone can rest a little easier tonight knowing that we are one step closer to finding him and eliminating him as a threat." Both of us sat in silence staring at the radio in Ron's now shaking hands. It couldn't be true.

We didn't wait to pack up our belongings, we grabbed our wands and we were gone. Going to the only place that seemed right to go to after the news we'd just heard.

**I want to say a massive thank you to rhmac 12 for reviewing all my chapters :D I'd love to hear your thoughts. xx**


	6. Chapter 6

**Ron**

We appeared on the outer boundary; the sun was setting peacefully behind the hills, the sky a wild red colour mixed with that deep blue coloured sky that you normally only see on really hot summer days. We stood for a minuet in silence just looking onto the house. It looked so peaceful. Did they know yet? Did we know yet?

Harry started walking towards the house first using long meaningful strides causing me to take a couple of running paces to fall into step with him. We both wore grim expressions not sure about what to expect. Could she really be gone?

We halted at the front door, not really sure what to do. I've never had to knock at my own front door before but at the same time I couldn't just waltz in like I'd been living here for the last six months. I could see Harry questioning it too but before either of us came up with an answer the door was swung open and mum literally threw herself onto us enveloping us both in the biggest, tightest hug she'd ever given me, in fact that anyone had ever given me.

I looked over her shoulder to see the rest of my family stood watching on. A mixture of relief and sadness filled their faces as they stared back at my self and Harry. Mum finally released us and stood back. She had tears welling in her eyes and as she blinked they ran silently down her face. She quickly dapped at them with her hanky as she surveyed us, probably checking us for injuries after they heard about Hermione.

But they were wrong she wasn't dead.

I would know if she was dead, and she wasn't.

"She's not, not gone." I found myself saying, unable to say the word dead. Their expressions changed. My heart sunk. Why were they looking at us like that?

We stood for a minuet in silence. Everyone was watching each other and waiting for someone else to speak first. We all had bleak expressions on our faces and for a second I wondered if they knew more than we did, before I dismissed this thought, how could they?

**Ginny**

I just felt so numb, the love of my life, my best friend and my brother had just disappeared to fight the dark lord and we had no idea how they were, or what they were doing. They'd been gone months now with out so much of an owl to let us know that they were alright. I couldn't decide whether them being gone this long was a good thing or bad thing. I went backwards and forwards between bad and good thousands of times a day. Over thinking what they were doing and if they were ok.

Then on one seemingly normal day, at dinner time we were all sat around the table and in walked Draco Malfoy bringing what little hope I did have left crashing down around me as I sat staring at him. He looked so different from the cocky, slytherin that I last saw sauntering around school but all I could focus on was her unmoving body. Her hair was dishevelled, dirt imbedded in it and it messily dangled from her head which was lolled back over his arm. Her arm hung heavily from her body. Blood had streamed down her arm from a strange looking cut on her forearm like someone had written on it but I couldn't work out what it was. The blood was now dark, dry and cracking down her arm and from in-between her almost blue fingers.

My family were talking to each other after Malfoy had made his hasty exit but I wasn't paying attention to them; and they weren't paying attention to me. I hadn't moved and sat motionless at my place at the table next to Ron's empty one. Everyone else was on there feet. They were checking her over in Fred's arms, but it was already too late. She was so pale, the dark blue/purple bruises and crimson blood contrasting harshly against her skin. I never thought someone could look so defeated and defenceless at the same time and she looked a million miles away from the Hermione Granger I'd last seen at the wedding. I couldn't help worrying for Harry and Ron. Were they ok? They wouldn't let this happen to Hermione.

I'd come to the conclusion that they'd been injured too, if not dead; but if that was true why bother bringing Hermione here?

I heard them arrive not long after Malfoy had left. I don't know if I expected them to come or not; or to even be alive, but here they were, stood just inside the front door. They didn't have a scratch on them and I didn't no whether to be relieved or livid, had they not fought for her at all? I stood behind everyone, not leaving Hermione's side. I don't think either of them could see me; but I could see them. They didn't look sad or like they had been crying, instead they wore expressions of confusion and dread.

"She's not, not gone." Ron said and my anger was about to boil over. They didn't even know. How could they have not looked after her? Where did they think she was now?

They were all stood silently looking at one another. I could feel myself turning red from anger. There were no questions to ask if we were alright or of Hermione, they just stood like idiots.

"How could you?" My voice came out only just above a whisper; yet my emotions were displayed perfectly. The room was silent so everybody heard and turned to face me. I was stood beside Hermione. Fred had carefully laid her on the sofa. Her eyes were softly closed like she was sleeping but I knew they would never open now. I looked down at her, tears filling my eyes. I looked back up at the boys. She was hidden from them by the back of the sofa but they soon realised that I was looking at something on it and started stepping forwards, curiously to see what it was.

**I can't believe it's taken me so long to get this to you, I'm sorry. Been caught up it the Harry Potter hype, re-watching the movies and going to see the new one at midnight :D**


	7. Chapter 7

**Ron**

I'd never seen Ginny like this before, and it was kind of scary. She was looking at something on the sofa which was hidden from me and Harry. We both stepped forwards to see what it was but Fred and George quickly jumped in front of us blocking our view.

"Move out the way." My voice came out low, strong and amazingly assertive.

They stood between us and the sofa as if considering what to do, before they both simultaneously and reluctantly stepped aside. Harry and I both took a step forwards and that was all we needed to take to see what they had been concealing on the sofa.

It was Hermione.

We were frozen for a second and I was sure that my feet had grown roots because I couldn't seem to move them no matter how hard I tried.

It was true and the evidence was right in front of me but still I refused to believe it; not my Hermione, not before I'd told her how I truly felt about her. I'd promised myself in the dungeon in Malfoy Manor, when I could hear her petrified screams above us that I would tell her how I felt about her the second we were free.

Why didn't I? The truth is I don't know. I wanted to, so badly and there were two times when I nearly told her but Harry interrupted the first and I chicken out on the second. Now I would never get to tell her, and never get to know what she would have said back.

I could feel the tears welling in my eyes but for once I didn't care or trying to brusquely wipe them away. Eventually I found my feet and I stepped around the sofa, my eyes never leaving her beautiful face. She looked asleep, just like she had done night after night in the tent when I would watch her sleep. I always made sure Harry was asleep too before I would sit up on my cot, using the deluminator as light. It bathed her face in a warm light and that image of her kept me going when I was away from her. How could I have been so stupid to leave her alone after all she had been through?

I knelt beside her, having no idea where anyone else was apart from me and her.

"Hermione, wake up. Wake up Hermione." I gently shook her shoulders willing her to wake up, but her eye lids didn't so much as flicker.

"No Hermione; you need to wake up. Listen to me; I can't do this with out you. You have to get up." I was sobbing now my words coming out between hiccups and gasps for breath. A hand squeezed my shoulder and I knew it was Harry; and I knew he felt guilty and was blaming himself.

"Don't." It came out rather harshly and he recoiled. "Feel guilty." I added feeling guilty myself for the out burst.

"You do." Harry's voice came out cracked and I looked up at him to see tears rolling down his cheeks. I had nothing left to say. I was still holding Hermione's shoulders in my hands and I pulled her closer. She was limp and cold in my arms. Battered and bruised, dried blood flaking from her wounds. She looked even worse than when we had left Malfoy Manor.

Her head lolled back off her shoulders and my eyes blurred over at the sight of dried blood on her neck from where Bellatrix had pressed the blade against it, her eyes dancing with excitement. Suddenly I felt sick as the memory washed over me and then it was gone as Harry's arms swiftly wrapped themselves around us.

I don't know how long we sat there crying, but I'd run out of tears. My eyes were dry and itchy but still I clutched Hermione like I could bring her back to us. I took a deep breath and brought my head up from Hermione's shoulder - where it had been buried. I looked around the familiar room nothing had changed in our time away.

We were alone, the three of us, just like it had been since the wedding. Now it would never be the same again. It would never again be just the three of us and I couldn't bear to think about what my life would be like with out her, she just couldn't be gone.

Her dead, cold weight lay unmoving in my arms. Mine and Harry's arms tangled around her, holding her close never wanting to let her go and finally admit that she was gone. How could we have let this happen to her, how could we not have realised that she was not just going to be ok after what had happened at Malfoy Manor?

She seemed fine, she acted fine but we shouldn't have taken her word for it; we should have stayed with her, if we had done that she would still be with us. It hadn't even probably sunk in yet but we still had hocruxes to find and destroy and I knew that Hermione would want us to finish what we had started.

I don't know how we could carry on without Hermione though. She was the brain's that always figures everything out. Anger filled me how could someone take her away from us. They were going to pay, even if I spent the rest of my life making sure they did. I would make their last hour's torture just like they had done to Hermione.

**And me! I clapped and wooped in the cinema when they kissed and I got a couple of evil looks :P thanks for reviewing and reading :D **


	8. Chapter 8

**Harry **

I felt Ron tense beside me. We'd been sat together simply holding Hermione for what I guessed to be the best part of an hour. Everyone else had left the room giving us the space we wanted but everything about the situation felt so wrong.

Her body felt too cold in my arms, her cold shoulder resting on my hot, red and tear stained cheek. I could feel Ron's sobs from beside me and I felt so guilty; this was all my fault.

I was always worried for Ron and Hermione but still I never really considered the possibility that one of them or both of them wouldn't make it. Now all I could do was hold them in my arms and wish that this was all one of my nightmares and that I would be shaken wake by Ron or Hermione telling me that I was shouting in my sleep again but the longer I sat wishing for this to come true the more the reality of the situation began to sink in.

She wasn't coming back, she was gone; just like my mum, my dad and Sirius; another person I'd lost. I didn't want to think about life with out her, it just seemed too unreal. There were two people that my home was with and now one of those people were gone I didn't know if we could survive let alone find the strength to finish what we started.

I could feel was Ron was feeling, it was radiating through him into me; I felt exactly the same. I knew he wanted revenge and would stop at nothing to make sure he got it, and neither would I. Who ever did this to her would not get away with it. We were going to kill them, destroy the horcruxes and then kill Voldemort once and for all and we were going to do it all for her.

I gripped my wand subconsciously as I thought about destroying whoever took Hermione away from us.

**Draco **

I'd been sat in my room waiting for them to come and find me. I was waiting for whatever they would do to me for being a traitor. I'd thought about running but I had nowhere to go and I had the dark mark now so I he would just call me to him anyway. It was taking longer than I expected and I found my self wondering what the Weasley's were doing. Did Harry and Ron no yet?

Then I heard it and I tensed in my place on my bed. The rushing foot steps of my aunt in her heeled black boots. She sounded as if she was alone but you never knew if he was with her. I braced myself for the on coming storm that was about to erupt as my heavy wood door was swung open as if it weighed nothing more than a quill. It banged loudly against the wall and my aunt stood in the doorway her untamed hair falling freely over her face.

She looked wild; she always had for as long as I could remember. I had seen the odd picture of her as a child and nobody would be able to recognise that little girl as her from those photos, unless they already knew her.

She had a disturbing smirk on her face and for a second I was dazed wondering why she was just stood there and was not already half way through hexing me. Then the smirk registered. It sent shivers down my spine and I suppressed the shiver knowing that she would pick up on it immediately. She could smell fear a mile of and would hunt it down picking of the weakest one by one.

She drew closer to me slowly, as if taking me in for the first time, her wicked grin never leaving her face from beneath her scraggy hair.

"How did you know?" She asked. She was stood above me now her smirk turning into a grin. Her strong sent surrounded me, reminding me of my childhood when I would dread her visits. It was an unforgettable sent, I'd never smelt anything like it anywhere else before. It was an expensive musky perfume mixed with a hint of spice and charred wood.

"How?" She woke me from my thoughts, her voice demanding to know, but her posture and expression stayed the same. I looked up at her expressionless, not knowing how to answer her when I didn't know what the question she was asking me was.

"You knew," she began too impatient to wait for my answer. "He's coming. His little girlfriend's all battered and broken; Potter's going to want his revenge. He's coming and we're waiting for him." She spoke gleefully, her hands twisting around her wand in excitement.

"Come on Draco, the dark lord wants you by his side for this one." I sat still, looking at her in disbelief. They saw what I had done as a good thing, something that I had thought out to get Potter to come to us instead of us trying to find him.

"Now Draco," she spat out impatiently, indicating for me to stand up and move out of the door in front of her. I stood gingerly picking up my wand from by bed side table before Auntie Bella gripped the top of my arms and hurried me out of the door and down the grand but dark hall way towards the dinning room.

**Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed it not long till Hermione comes back. Is anyone else having problems with uploading chapters my account has been playing up **** LOL mine was a half squeal half cheer while my friend tried to dive on me to get her hand over my mouth to shut me up ;P **


	9. Chapter 9

**Ron**

Harry and I stood watching the sunset behind the hills. It was so peaceful to watch and confused the feelings of rage and the need for revenge I had inside me. I had so many emotions swimming around in my head and I didn't know how to deal with any of them.

My heart panged as I remember Hermione's words about me having the emotional range of a tea spoon, she was right, and I couldn't help but smile as I remembered the three of us sat around the fire in the Gryffindor common room bursting into laughter at her comment.

I stopped my thought in its tracks before I could remember the light of the fire gently flickering across her beautiful features. Instead I turned my attention to what was in front of me but redirected my attention upwards looking straight to the sky desperately needing to focus on anything that wasn't Hermione because I was dangerously close to falling into a heap and in all probability never getting up again.

The warm colours of reds and oranges weaved in and out of each other across the sky creating the most spectacular sunset I'd ever seen. It was almost over now with the sun barely visible behind the hills leaving only the water wash of warm colours across the sky as evidence to what a gorgeous day it had been.

We were alone now; the rest of the family had left us standing here along time ago. Ginny had stay longer and watched the beginning of the sunset but eventually she too went inside.

I had absolutely no idea how we'd gotten through this day; but we had. We stood side by side, neither or us having to say a word. At our feet lay freshly dug earth with a rounded smooth white stone lying like a pillow at one end. Tears stung in my eyes as I thought of Hermione lying lifelessly underneath our feet.

There was no way she was coming back to us now and I couldn't deny it any longer, we were alone.

**Harry **

I could feel Ron looking at me waiting for me to look at him, but I wasn't ready yet. So I continued to look down, hoping that he wouldn't do anything to gain my attention.

At my feet lay my best friend, the smell of freshly dug earth drifting upward from her grave. Part of me couldn't believe I was stood here doing this, but the other part of me kept replaying the image of Hermione pale and lifeless, limb in Ron's arms and whatever I did my mind would not let this image go.

Her head stone wasn't like a normal head stone it didn't stand up right in stead it lay sideways across the top of the dug earth, like a pillow. It was pure white without as much as a speck of anything on it, the corners were rounded giving it a soft look. Carved into the top in elegant, loopy writing was written 'Hermione Granger beloved daughter and friend.' Was that all her life meant, six measly word.

Just days ago I had paced helplessly around the dungeons and Malfoy manor listening to every heart breaking scream of pain she let out, trying desperately to reach her, and we did eventually, thanks to Dobby. But when we got out of there and we safe on the beach I thought that was it. I thought we were safe. Hermione might have been mentally and physically hurt but she would get better.

I'd let myself think that we could all get through this with only scrapes and bruises and reality had harshly hit home as Ron screamed back to Hermione. I listened as: I heard Bellatrix's interrogation Hermione, her rage as Hermione didn't answer the way she wanted her to, then to Hermione's screams, and after that to Ron's frantic shouts back to her whilst doing everything he could to escape from the dungeon and make Bellatrix stop torturing her.

We heard her fury grow and with it grew Hermione's screams; both of them getting louder until Bellatrix screeched out a cruse that made both of us stop in our tracks. We looked at each other in horror as Hermione's screaming worsened both of us unable to imagine the pain she was enduring as we blamed ourselves for what she was going through.

That was the moment I realised that we might not all get through this, and that if we did there would be some emotional and physical scars that might never heal.

**Draco**

I stood side by side with the dark lord dreading the moment when Harry and Ron would pop into sight and the battle would begin. It was the last thing I wanted to do but nobody said no to the dark lord, well nobody survived saying no to the dark lord. On his other side stood my aunt, eagerly awaiting their arrival; I could hear the wood of her wand tapping against her finger nails and although I didn't dare look at her I knew from experience that this noise meant that she was twirling her wand between her fingers.

I was staring straight ahead, trying not to breathe in the smell of death that was radiating off the dark lord beside me. I was focusing on one particular brick on the far wall, it was exactly the same as the other bricks; yet I stared at it unblinking as if it was going to move from its place and reveal a magical world that could never exist.

I kept reassuring myself that as long as I could see that brick then Harry and Ron weren't here yet and I'd had another minuet where I didn't have to fight a fight I didn't believe in anymore. But as the time ticked on and the dark lord got more and more impatient beside me I knew that he wouldn't rest now until they had come for their revenge, and that meant that I had no way out of this fight.

Could I really win against Harry and Ron? When I'd tried so hard before to beat them and show them how much better I thought myself then them. I'd believed that I wanted to hurt them and still I lost; and now I didn't want to fight them or hurt them. Would I be able to cast a spell against them knowing that they were just mourning the death of their best friend? A friend that my auntie tortured in her last hours before bring her back here to use her like a dead deer to lure the lion.

**100 percent Hermione will be back in the next chapter I was trying to get her into this one but it was getting long and I didn't want to squish it down. **

**I'm really sorry it's taken me this long to upload this chapter. I've had it written for ages but my life took a turn for the worst and its taken me this long to find my feet again, sorry again hope you enjoy it. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Ron**

We apparated into Malfoy Manor neither one of us knowing what to expect, but we didn't care; all we wanted was Hermione back and if we couldn't have her back then someone was going to pay. I could feel the rage and adrenaline racing through my veins. I'd never felt anything like it before, not even when Voldermort's actions had threatened my dad or Ginny.

But now it felt like nothing could stop me. I was going to get my revenge and there was nobody that could get in my way. I balled my hands into fists, my wand in my right hand pointing menacingly around the room. It was deserted. It was dark and motionless. The air was stagnant and smelt strongly of rotting flesh.

I could hear Harry's foot steps to the left of me but it was too dark to see him. Without thinking I pulled out the deluminator out of my pocket and flicked the switch on the top making the light fly upwards and outwards finding the nearest light to rest in.

We were in the same room we had apparated away from with dobby on that awful day. My eyes followed the lights that flew into the chandelier. Almost immediately I noticed that it had been fixed and was back in the same place just like it had never moved, just like it had never nearly crushed Hermione.

The room wasn't plunged into light. It was still quiet dark, almost like a gloomy night with the moon only just peeping through the clouds. This gave the room an eerie feeling because of the amount of shadows it left hanging from the ancient furnisher scattered around the room.

That's the moment I noticed two little red slits in the darkness. It was quickly followed by the swoosh of a clock as he stepped boldly into view. I suddenly felt like pray that had just stepped into the devil's trap.

Harry stood shoulder to shoulder beside me also watching him, as I was, both of us unable to take our eye of him as we realised Hermione's death had been the bait for this trap. That's why she had been killed, to get Harry to come to him!

I wasn't surprised when Malfoy and Bellatrix followed him out of the darkness on either side, but it did add to my sense of dread as all three of them drew their wands out in front of them, pointing them directly at us.

**Harry**

We'd walked straight into a trap. They had been waiting; they knew that we wouldn't let them get away with murdering her; which is probably why she was targeted. Ron was stood beside me wand in one hand, the deluminator in the other.

Then a plan hit me.

"Ron, the lights." I whispered. He glanced quickly sideways to make sure he was thinking the same thing as me and then he flicked the switch on the deluminator and the room was suddenly in darkness.

I felt for Ron beside me but he had disappeared. I didn't want to whisper for him because it would have given our position away instead I decide that he must have move away without me, so I did the same. I didn't know where I was going, I couldn't see anything but I carefully and quietly moved across the room trying to find Ron and the door I had seen just seconds ago when the lights were on.

** Ron **

I was suddenly miles away from Malfoy Manor and the trap that we had walked straight into, instead I was heading somewhere, the only problem was that I couldn't work out where or why, but this was where I was meant to be; I was sure of that. I closed my eyes and let the feeling take me. It felt like the most natural thing in the world like I was going home. I felt myself steady and the closeness of the place I'd just arrived in. It smelt of damp and dirt but there was also a smell that was very familiar, Hermione.

"Ron." I was imagining her saying my name, like she was whispering it in my ear.

I opened my eyes to find that it was pitch black around me and I instinctively flicked the deluminator.

I was shocked and discussed to see where I was, but my eyes were transfixed on two other soft brown eyes that I never thought I would see again.

"Hermione," I choked out, my mind trying to come to terms with what I was seeing.

"Oh my god, how?" I asked but with out waiting for an answer I lowered my lips to hers slowly. I didn't close my eyes, scared that if I did I would wake from this dream or I would blink and she would disappear, a figure of my imagination.

Our lips brushed like feathers at first and I quickly pulled back truly not expecting it to have actually happened. There was a moment of hurt in Hermione's eyes before I leaned in again kicking myself for moving away in the first place.

My lips tingled this time as they touched hers. Hers were cracked and cold but it was still the best kiss I had ever had. I found all the comfort I needed and it undid most of the last week's worth of grief and mourning. Everything was here, there was a reason to be happy and live through the war again.

As the kiss deepened it was saying everything we wanted to say to each other through it and receiving what we so desperately wanted to hear as well. Tears sprung into my eyes. She was alive, or was I dead? Either way we were together and that's all I had wished for.

**Soooo, Hermione is back yayayayayyy! I want to thank everyone who reviewed I love hearing your thoughts. I don't think I did their kiss much justice **** hope you enjoy it **


	11. Chapter 11

**Hermione**

I couldn't believe it actually worked. I'd been so far away for so long and then suddenly I was pulled back. I didn't know what I felt, relief, happiness, sadness. It had been wonderful where I had been, I'd never felt anything like it before but it wasn't my time. It felt wrong to be there, not when Harry and Ron needed me here so much. I could feel them while I was there. Their pain, their grief, every single tear they shed and their emotions were still fresh inside me.

And now here I was, lying; alive, in my own coffin. God knows how many feet under the earth with no wand and no way out. I was trying not to get claustrophobic but the coffin seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. I knew it was impossible but I defiantly hadn't prepared myself for waking up here, if I was even going to wake up at all. But I had and now I was going to die in my own coffin for the simple reason that I couldn't apparate with out a wand.

I still felt connected to Ron and Harry. I could feel the rage they felt and the guilt, there was so much guilt and that was entirely my fault. I hadn't let them know what I was doing because I knew they wouldn't let me take the risk but without killing Bellatrix she would have been able to find me whenever she wanted to. She would have been able to kill me and who ever I was with at the time so I had to. I wasn't going to put them at risk for me.

I'd done that in the first year with the troll and that night, lying in bed, I promised myself that I would never put them in harms way again. Of course that's not how our lives had turned out but I was still going to protect them when ever I could.

That's why I had killed myself. I'd prayed that the spell and potion together would mean that it would only last five days but really I had no idea if it would work. I'd put my faith in Dumbledore for the last time and just like every time before it he had looked after me and made sure that everything had worked out.

It also made me wonder what other things he had left behind to look after us. Everything in his will was given with the right amount of knowledge and guidance for us to find the answers at the right time. It was amazing really we spent months trying to work it out and then one little thing happens and it all slots together perfectly.

It was frustrating and at times down right infuriating all the time we had spent trying to work it out, but we were doing it to defeat you-know-who and if we succeeded then it would all be worth it because then everyone would be free.

Suddenly panic overwhelmed me, but it wasn't me it was Ron and Harry. They were scared, feeling trapped and there was nothing I could do to help them.

"Ron." I spoke out, not really know why.

And then all of a sudden there he was right in front of me, lying on top of me. His face inches from mine and all I could do was stare at him. He didn't move for a second but then he flicked on his deluminator. The coffin was abruptly filled with light and I flinched away from it my eyes stinging at the brightness.

I opened my eyes slowly and as they adjusted to the light I could see Ron looking around. He looked shocked and discussed to see where he was; but then he focused on me. Looking straight into my eyes and I could see the uncertainty in them.

"Hermione," he choked out, and I could see that he was having difficulty coming to terms with what he was seeing.

"Oh my god, how?" He asked but with out waiting for an answer he lowered his head and our lips got closer together. I closed my eyes as they met.

Our lips brushed like feathers at first but Ron pulled back quickly and I was left feeling abandoned, did he not feel the same as me? But before I could think more deeply about it he had leaned in again taking me by surprise.

His lips were warm and soft against mine and I moved my hands up to cup either side of his face. My lips were tingling as they moved around his. I found all the comfort I needed and it and I could feel that Ron was feeling this too. It undid most of the last week's worth of grief and mourning. Everything was here, there was a reason to be happy and live through the war again, that is if we ever left this coffin.

Before all I wanted to do was get out, far away breath fresh air and feel the wind on my face but now I never wanted to leave. I wanted it to be both of us here forever, in the safety of our little cocoon.

As the kiss deepened it was saying everything we wanted to say to each other through it and receiving what we so desperately wanted to hear as well. I couldn't work out which feelings were mine and which were his they twined together and I could feel the relief that I was alive and the joy that we could be together.

Then sharply he pulled back a look of worry and concern on his face but I already knew what was wrong. I was in his head as well as mine and I wondered if it would ever go away.

"Harry." He explained not knowing that I already knew what he was thinking.

"We have to go help him." I said grabbing his hand and waiting for him to apparate. He looked at me strangely wondering how I knew but his need to find Harry was great at this moment so he pulled out his wand and with a pop we were gone.

**A huge thank you to rhmac12 for reviewing, sorry I forget that only I know what is going on but I've tried to make it more clear with this chapter. Hope you enjoy :D love to hear what you think xx**


	12. Chapter 12

** Hermione**

We appeared in the one place I feared most in the word, Malfoy Manor. It was dark but I could make out that this was the same room Bellatrix had used to torture me in. It had the same smell which brought memories flashing through my mind. I pushed them back down determined that they would not over whelm me. We had to find Harry and make sure he was safe.

As I felt my legs beginning to take my weight I realised that I hadn't used them in five days and they weren't going to hold me up. I tried to move into Ron for support not wanting to fall to the floor but he was holding onto my hand so tightly I couldn't release it to take a firm hold of his arm. Instead I fell into him nearly knocking us both off our feet.

He caught his balance and used his free hand to hold my upper arm keeping me on my feet. We were still holding hands and he was stood inches from my face looking concernedly into my eyes. I could feel my feet adjusting to my weight and I shifted them beneath me and they began to hold me up.

"I'm ok." I whispered and he slowly realised my arm but kept hold of my hand. I looked around again and remembered where we were and how much I didn't want to be here.

I felt my hand start to shake inside Ron's. I didn't want him to feel me shaking, I didn't want to admit to him that I was scared of this place so I pulled my hand out of his harshly but I didn't look up to see the look on his face.

Everything was quiet around us and I wondered if this really was the place where Harry was. I was sure that we would have landed straight in the middle of a fight but everything was still and calm, it was a good job too because I'd moved to get my wand and realised that I didn't have it with me.

What was I going to do if we had to fight our way out of here? I was useless without my wand. In that moment I wanted to sink to the floor and never come out again. I needed my wand, it gave me power, but with out it I was walking around already dead and I couldn't put Ron and Harry through that again.

I had felt their pain and it was something I never wanted to put them through again but I could never be certain that I wouldn't. All it took was one tiny mistake in one tiny moment in this war and I could be gone again and I would be leaving them alone with all their hurt and pain. I couldn't bear to think about it and instead I forced myself to keep aware and keep myself alive for them.

I had to live for them; I had to be strong for them. I would not have them living their lives feeling guilt and pain just because I wasn't strong enough to survive.

I froze at the sound of Bellatrix's shoes tip taping down the hallway outside. I would know her footsteps anywhere.

"Ron, Harry's not here lets go." I whispered all too eager to get out of this hell hole. I couldn't feel Harry anywhere close to us so I hoped that he had apparated out of here at the first chance he got.

"We've got to have a look around he could be anywhere here." Ron said determinedly.

"Ron this is a huge house how are we going to search it from top to bottom?" I questioned hoping to change his mind. I wanted nothing more than to find Harry but this just didn't seem the best way to do it.

Ron paused for a minuet taking in what I was saying and he looked like he was thinking it over.

"We could so easily get lost or captured then we would be no good to him what so ever. We should go and see if he's got out, then if he hasn't we can make a plan and come back and get him." I was trying to sound level headed and intelligent but I wasn't sure if it was working. I just wanted to get out of Malfoy Manor and I would do almost anything to do so and do it as fast as I possibly could.

He took another ten seconds to think it over as I tapped my foot on the floor before he started to speak. I prayed that he would believe what I'd said and say we could leave.

"Ok, but if he's not there then we're coming straight back." I nodded trying not to show the relief on my face as I took Ron's hand ready to apparate.

**I want to say a big thank you to rhmac12, bushyhaired-american-nerd and susieQ41 for reviewing :D The spell between Hermione and the knife would only break when she died but she couldn't risk being around Harry and Ron while Bellatrix could find them so easily so she had to try the potion and spell in the hope that it would work because Bellatrix would be able to find and kill her whenever she wanted anyway. All with Draco will be revealed in later chapters but he won't be unscathed, but first Hermione and Ron have to find Harry :D **


	13. Chapter 13

**Hermione**

"Ok, but if he's not there then we're coming straight back." I nodded trying not to show the relief on my face as I took Ron's hand ready to apparate.

I closed my eyes ready to leave but a wave of nausea pasted through my whole body and I tensed every mussel as I heard a mangled scream come from somewhere around us.

I hadn't even realised that it was me screaming until my body fell to the floor and Ron quickly fell onto his knees beside me. He was about to gathered me in his arms but before he could touch me a spell shot over my head and he was thrown across the room straight into the stone wall and stuck to it a couple of meters in the air.

Normally seeing that happen to Ron would have made me go weak at the knees but all I could think and feel was pain. I knew the pain all too well and although I'd never heard the words uttered I knew that it was the crusis curse, but it was different to last time. It almost wasn't as bad. I was writhing on the floor, jerking around as every inch of me tried, and failed not to feel the pain.

Suddenly the intense pain stopped and my body fell heavily onto the hard cold floor. It felt as though gravity had gotten a lot stronger because my body felt like it was being pushed into the floor, or maybe the floor was being push into me.

I was just glad most of the pain had stopped. I lay still my body still feeling the curse running through it. I didn't dare move not wanting another round of curses to come my way.

I couldn't see Ron from where I was. My back was to him and I didn't dare move to see him, fearing another round of that curse would be my last. I'd lost track of the amount of times I'd felt it surging through my veins, tearing my body up from the inside, the razor sharp knives stabbing every inch of me.

I never imagined in my life that someone could be in so much pain and still live. When I listened or read about people describing the effects of the curse I had never thought that one day I would feel that pain. That someone would hate me enough to use it on me, but here I was. They didn't even want me; I was Harry Potter's best friend being tortured AGAIN so that they could find him.

I'd already died for him and Ron and all I could think about was how I should have stayed dead. This pain was too much for anyone and even if we got out of here alive then I would have the memories to haunt me day and night for the rest of my life.

I was brought back to the present by another agonising burst of pain as it swiftly spread through my body again awakening it with pain. I couldn't do this for much longer. When it first hit me I didn't think I could hold on this long but now I was losing my grip and part of me welcomed it because it meant the end of the pain for good.

Harry and Ron had been expelled from my thoughts. It hurt too much to think of them and wonder where they were and why they weren't helping me. I needed help more than last time and I tried to hold on but they were taking too long.

I was on my back when I was realised from the curse and having no energy left at all I stayed exactly where I was staring up at the ceiling. I was still here; I'd survived another round, just about.

He was stood over me leering down at me and tight smile across his thin lips. His white, long boney fingers sliding up and down his wand as he admired his handy work. If I had the strength to shudder I would have. His eyes were small and free from all emotion, just dark; almost entrancing.

I thought it strange, now that I would take him over Bellatrix any day. He was the dark lord, the evilest of all evils but he wasn't. Her curses were worse than his. I know it sounded crazy Bellatrix worse than him, but she was. A lot worse.

He had only used one curse on me so far where as Bellatrix would swap between curses for the maximum amount of pain to be inflicted. And Bellatrix had that knife. Laced with dark magic it was one of the worst things she had done. Not only with the pain but she had branded me forever.

Carving that word into my arm would never let me forget what I was, or what she did to me.

Suddenly it was like a memory igniting inside me. I had absolutely no doubts that it was Bellatrix behind this curse. So much pain; it was worse than last time, and I never thought that could be possible but some how it was. Maybe it was because I was weaker this time, or that I had just endured his curses moments before. Whatever it was it was too much and within moments of the curse hitting me the blackness came and invited me into it, I accepted gladly and fell heavily into the darkness.

**I huge thank you to rhmac12 and bushyhaired-american-nerd for reviewing. I wasn't going to put this in but after bushyhaired-american-nerd's review I couldn't help myself. Thanks for reading, let me know what you think Hope you enjoy!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Ron **

All I could do was watch on as Voldermort hit Hermione with the crucios curse over and over and over. I called out to her at first but I was soon silenced. Tears slid down my cheeks at the sight of her in agony. I couldn't protect her; again.

I'd only just got her back and now I was going to lose her again. She was barely conscious and she hadn't tried to make any movement in-between the last six curses I had watched _him_ inflict on her. She was barely holding on but there was nothing I could do to make sure that she carried on fighting. I didn't even know how she came back to us in the first place but I very much doubted that it would happen again.

I prayed for Harry to break down the door and come and save her. Hell I even prayed that Malfoy would come and break down the door and save her. It killed me inside knowing that I couldn't save her now, that all I could do was watch as she was mercilessly tortured.

Think, I had to think of a plan. I had to get us out of here but every logical thought had disappeared and was replaced by panic and dread as I watched Hermione's frail body lying motionless on the floor in front of me. I had missed how skinny she had gotten this year. She had always been slim but never this skinny, it was almost sickly.

All three of us had lost weight, being on the run didn't always mean that there was food to put on the table but I suddenly realised that Hermione had been missing out on food herself making sure that we had eaten instead. Guilt filled me how could we have not noticed how skinny she had gotten?

Where was Harry? We'd come back for him but he was nowhere to be found. Had he just appearated out of here when I had left? Why did we even come back for him? The most obvious answer was that he would leave straight away, I mean why would he hang around if I had gone?

He wouldn't, and I had just landed Hermione into another trap and this one was even worse than the last one and I could never have thought that possible. This was all my fault. Why would I bring her back here after what had happened here last time? And I had just got her back; I had to be thick.

**Hermione**

His curses might not have touched the extent of fury and pain that Bellatrix's had callously realised on me but I could feel the darkness of him seeping into me, the pure evilness of his soul touching mine. I could feel it leaving an everlasting imprint on mine scaring it for life.

I felt the blackness changing me in ways I never knew possible. Giving me emotions I never knew I was capable of having.

I could feel Ron too. He was feeling helpless, worried, angry and many other things but having all these emotions swimming inside of me was tearing pieces of my mind apart. They were fighting against each other and I was on both sides.

I never knew that you could be so full of emotion yet so empty at the same time. I'd started to lose everything I cared about one by one and now all that was left in my mind was Ron and Harry, but was that only because I could feel them and their emotions inside me.

So many emotions and none of them mine. The strangest of all feelings. Feeling other people's feelings, which defiantly weren't your own, aching in your very soul. I was so very confused.

I was waiting for the next curse to come flying at me, ripping through my body but it didn't. There had never more than a minute or so gap between them since he had started his torturer but the last one was at least three minuets ago. I kept waiting trying to brace myself for the pain that I was certain was coming but it didn't.

I didn't have the strength to lift my head of the floor, from the place where it had fallen and look around. From where I was all I could see was the cold, stone slabs that I was lying on. Nothing else it was like they extended on forever. I knew they didn't, and that there were lots of people in the same room as me but at that moment I felt like I was the only person in the world.

I couldn't hear anything. It was like I was in a avoid between life and death, and I wasn't in either just floating. I was completely unaware of what was going on around me and frankly I didn't care. All I wanted was for the lingering pain to disappear.

I didn't feel like myself anymore. Hermione wasn't me. Hermione was a brilliant young witch that attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was the best in her year with a sharp mind and capable of solving any problem given to her.

No; I defiantly didn't feel like her any more. I was just a crushed young woman, my body battered and bruised. My mind scared with the things I'd seen and endured. I could never again be her, so carefree and innocent. Now I was defined by what had happened. That would be if I ever got out of this.

Part of me truly believed in Ron and Harry and that they would come and save me, but would they arrive too late. I knew that they were on their way, trying to get to me; but they were not known for their time keeping. Would they arrive too late? I knew they would be crushed if anything happened. I just hoped that they would find the strength to carry on.

**A big thank you to rhmac12 and bushyhaired-american-nerd for reviewing my last chapter :D Hermione's my second favourite, I absolutely LOVE Ron. Harry to the rescue in the next chapter? Thank you for reading xx**


	15. Chapter 15

**Harry **

I could hear her screaming, but it was impossible. A cruel trick my mind and ears were playing on me. Why; I wasn't sure. Maybe it was being back here or simply because I missed her so much. I heart felt like it was being crushed in my chest. I needed her to stop screaming. I wanted to save her more than anything in the world but I knew it was too late.

She was gone and there was nothing I could do to save her now, no matter how much I wanted to. Why wouldn't she stop screaming? There was uneven gaps and pauses but she always started again.

Her screams were so unbearable I found myself edging nearer and nearer to them. I had no idea what I would find, Hermione was gone forever. I was going crazy. That was the only explanation for it. My heart aching so much that my memories were becoming mixed with the present.

I found myself stood alone outside the huge towering doors which I had scurried out of earlier. I still had no idea where Ron was and I was hoping that he had made it out ok. I took a deep breath before doing one of the most stupid things, I would probably ever do.

Just as my hand turned on the doorknob another heart wrenching Hermione scream filled the air. It sounded so real, so crisp and painful. I pushed open the door slowly holding my wand out in front of me ready to stun anyone I saw.

Once the door was open a couple of centimetres there was just enough room for me to peer in and see what was happening inside. I gasped in horror as my eyes fixed onto Ron who was stuck halfway up the wall seeming held there by thin air.

Tears fell down his cheeks as he looked at something, or someone lying motionless in the middle of the floor. I didn't have a very good view of this person, so therefore couldn't tell who it was but my mind was already racing going through everyone it could be.

Read filled me as I imagined Ginny lying there helpless whilst Voldermort cursed her to try and get to me. Another spell flew from his wand and landed directly into the figures chest. Hermione's scream escaped their lips but I couldn't watch on any longer to try and figure out who this person was, they were in excruciating pain and I was going to save them and Ron.

I muttered a spell across the room and Ron fell from the wall landing in a heap. All attention left the person lying on the floor and fell on him. I burst in disarming Bellatrix and Malfoy then stunning them before I turned my attention to Voldermort.

His wand was aiming directly at me but he hadn't fired a spell yet. Noticed Ron climb to his feet and I hastily threw a wand his way. Voldermort used this distraction to fire at me but I was expecting it and blocked it.

Ron caught the wand whilst I blocked another spell and started running full speed at the motionless figure. Voldermort was fixated on me completely ignoring Ron as he lent over the person pulling them into his arms.

"Dobby." Ron screamed desperately and within a second Dobby had popped into the room. I watched as Dobby touched Ron and the three of them disappeared leaving me alone with Voldermort. I was getting ready to aim a spell at him when Dobby reappeared and hastily took hold of my leg and disapperated us away.

We appeared outside the tent Ron and I had left just before we had heard about Hermione. I could hear Ron talking soft and lovingly to someone inside and I took a moment to collect myself before I found out who else had been hurt because of me.

My heart stopped as I walked into the tent to find Ron sat on one of the cots holding a curled up Hermione in his arms. For a moment I stood in the doorway unable to breathe of blink wondering how my imagination had cooked up this.

"Harry, thank god you're alright." Ron spoke as he saw me stood in the doorway. I spluttered not knowing what to say.

"I don't know. I flicked the deluminator and pop there I was in her coffin and she was alive and awake. We came to find you and; and he, he." Ron broke down unable to finish his sentence.

I stepped forward towards the cot and sat myself beside my two best friends. I had no idea how we had gotten so lucky, I'm pretty sure nobody else had ever returned from the dead, but I was so thankful that it had happened. I pulled them both into my arms so relieved to feeling them both warm and breathing.

I held them tightly for a while before I realised that I hadn't felt Hermione move. I pulled back sharply causing Ron to look at me with alarm.

"What happened to Hermione? Is she ok? Why isn't she moving?" I blurted my questions out not giving Ron time to answer before I pulled her out of his arms and lay her down beside him as I started checking her over for injuries.

She was still covered from head to toe in the cuts and bruises she had received before dying but it didn't look like there was any new injuries which had been added.

"Curses, lots and lots of Cruciatus curses." Ron whispers. My heart sank, there was nothing we could do now but wait and hope that she would wake up.

**I can't believe that it's taken me 60 days to update this story, that's appalling! The next chapter will defiantly not take that long, I made sure by writing part of it now. I want to say thank you to rhmac12 and bushyhaired-american-nerd for sticking with me for so long and reviewing my chapters, thanks again, Lucy xx**


	16. Chapter 16

**Ron**

I poured the boiling water into a bowl replacing the kettle onto the stove. I added a small amount of cold water before dipping my finger into it to test the temperature. It was hot but not boiling to I picked up the clean tea towel Harry and I had set aside and dunked the end of it into the water.

I pulled it out, squeezed the excess water back into the bowl before I turned and gingerly pressed the wet cotton to Hermione's forehead. Blood and dirt washed away from her skin leaving an open cut on her the side of her forehead. It was healing well, put would defiantly scar.

I carried on washing away the blood and dirt from Hermione's body. Little by little her skin became clean again leaving only bruises and healing cuts to be seen. After changing the water for the eighth time I became aware of Harry watching me from the other camp bed which was on the other side of the tent.

He had a look of guilt and pain on his face and I could tell he was worrying about her. I was as well, it had been hours since we had escaped from Malfoy Manor for the second time and we hadn't seen a flicker of life from her yet.

But that was alright, her body had been through so much recently it was only right that it needed time to heel. I wanted to voice my opinion to Harry and comfort him but I couldn't find my voice. Instead I tried to smile at him, which he didn't notice before I returned to Hermione.

As I washed Hermione I paused from time to time to make sure that she was defiantly still breathing. I had no idea how she had been resurrect from the dead but I was going to make sure that she stayed in the land of the living now.

Finally I was finished and I started cleaning away. It was only when I was done that I realised why Harry had been sat looking the way he had. Now I had nothing to do either apart from sit a stare at Hermione, hoping and waiting for her to wake up.

I stood in the doorway to the tent not knowing what to do with myself. I looked between Harry and Hermione, my two best friends and suddenly it hit me just how far we had come this year.

Not a year ago we were at Hogwarts. I won't say that we didn't have a care in the world but compared to what's happened since homework and exams didn't have the same importance as they once did.

And now here we were sat in some forest, in a tent waiting for Hermione to wake up, after she had already died and came back to life! I desperately wanted her to wake up but there was a small part of me that was worried that she would blame us for not getting to her quick enough.

I hated to think of what she had been though at the hands of Bellatrix and You-Know-Who, what if she wasn't the same afterwards – like Neville's parents. No she will be fine; she just had to be. We didn't come this far for her not to be. It was going to take time for her to heel but she would and eventually we will go back to normal. We just had to defeat You-Know-Who first.

**Harry**

I watched on from my camp bed as Ron carefully cleaned up Hermione. The clean tea towel quickly became covered in blood and mud and Ron repeatedly changed the bowl of water as it turned murky. I watched him as he moved around the tent repeating the same actions over and over, each time returning to sit beside Hermione.

She hadn't woken yet, not even a flicker of her eye lids to indicate that she would wake soon. How had she even woken in the first place? I was there when we buried her. I held her cold and lifeless body in my arms. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me when I heard her screaming. I could have been quicker to save them. Why did I not go straight towards her screams?

If I had gotten to them quicker then Hermione wouldn't have had to go through so much torture and she might be conscious now. I didn't know what to do. There was nothing I could do to help her, there was nothing Ron could do either he was just keeping himself busy. All we could do now was hope that she would come back to us again.

I couldn't believe that that lifeless body slumped on the floor of Malfoy Manor was once again hers. When I appeared beside Ron and looked down to see who he was carrying I didn't for one second believe that it was actually her. I kept blinking and in the end Ron had told me that it was.

"How?" I had stuttered, but all he could tell me was that when he flicked the deluminator he apparated to her in her coffin, and she was alive. He didn't know how it had happened; the only person who did was Hermione. We were just waiting now praying that when she woke she would be the same Hermione and not of had the same fate as Neville's parents.

**A huge thank you to rhmac12, susieQ41 and bushyhaired-american-nerd for such wonderful reviews. I'm a little stuck on where to go with this once Hermione wakes. I know they have to go and find the Horcruxes, I'm just not sure where to start so any pointers would be great. Thanks for reading :D**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hermione **

Silence surrounded me. I was awake. I didn't dare move or open my eyes. I didn't want them to know I was awake. I forced my aching body to stay still. I was trying to work out where I was, but there wasn't anything I could do to find out without opening my eyes; and I wasn't going to do that.

I knew what was waiting for me and if they knew I was awake it would only come sooner, so I stayed still, trying to conceal the fact that I had regained consciousness.

I tried to listen to what was going on around me but I couldn't hear anything. I wondered if I'd lost my hearing through magic or it was my body's way of saying enough was enough and refusing to work.

Either way it lead me no closer to working out where I was and who was around me. I could still feel the pain filtering through my body from the curses that it had endured. Suddenly I remember that Ron had been with me. I prayed that he was alright and that they had been spared him the treatment I had had but I doubted it.

Voldermort wanted Harry and there was nothing in the world he wouldn't do to get him. Not that torturing people Harry loved wouldn't give him great pleasure, because I knew for a fact that it did, but now I though about him sparing Ron – Harry's best friend – and I realised how ridiculous I was being; of course Ron would have gotten the same treatment as me.

He was Harry's best friend too. That gave him the same target on his back as I had. I hoped he was ok and that Harry had gotten away safely. As much as I wanted out of this place I didn't want Harry to come and get us. He had to stay alive, track down the Horcruxes and eventually kill Him.

Yes Harry had to defeat him. He had to save both the wizarding world and the non-wizarding world from his evil clutches; even if that meant sacrificing Ron and I. Harry would never do that but I hoped that Harry would see the bigger picture and see that he needed to help the wizarding world.

My body was stiff and sore and trying to hold it deadly still was making the pain worse. I still had no idea where I was. I tried to focus my mind on working it out from what I could feel, smell and hear around me but it was like my senses were all messed up.

I guessed that it was from the pain still washing through my body, hitting nerves and sending jolts of pain up them. The pain was just about bearable, but compared to what I had just been though I was counting myself lucky.

The silence around me was broken by the scuffing of shoes. I quickly realised that whoever the shoes belonged to was making their way towards me. My whole body tensed as I thought about who it could be. I was determined to convince them I was still unconscious; I just couldn't go though another round of torture, not yet.

The shoes came to a stop in front of me and I couldn't help but hold my breath. I would need to breathe soon but I was too scared to take the sharp intake of breath that I needed to stay conscious.

What surprised me next was a deep sigh. I'd heard that sigh before. A lot of times recently but my brain was refusing to let me access who it belonged to. Whilst trying to place the sigh I had forgotten about the person stood in front of me and when a warm, gentle hand grazed my temple with nothing but concern and care I couldn't stop my reaction of pure fear.

I let out a strangled noise as my eyes shot open and my stiff body desperately tried to move backwards away from my attacker. Ron shot backwards from the shock, but quickly recovered.

"Hermione it's me, Ron." Even though I heard his words I couldn't make sense of them. I was too busy trying to find an escape route to really notice that I was back in our tent, safe.

Ron tried stepping forwards to get me to realise that it was him stood in front of me but this just made me panic more. I scrambled to my feet, only to find that they wouldn't support my weight and I found myself on my knees fighting to hold back the tears. I was not going to cry in front of them, they would not see me as weak.

"Hermione." Harry tried this time to get my attention as he cautiously moved across the tent to join Ron. I heard him but wasn't sure whether it was my imagination making it up because I so desperately wanted him to be in front of me.

"Hermione, its ok now you're safe. You're with us, me and Harry. Hermione."

"Ron?" I questioned looking up from my lap at my two best friends who were stood in front of me with sorrow and terror on their faces. "Harry? Is it really you?" Such a stupid question, anyone who wanted me to believe it was them would just have said yes.

"It's us, it's really us." Harry answered me as they both drew slowly nearer, not wanting to spook me. I was looking between them, my eyes brimming with unshed tears.

They both kneeled in front of me. I could feel their need to touch me but I was glad when they didn't. I wasn't ready yet, and they seemed to know that.

**I can't believe I haven't written for ages really didn't mean to leave you guys hanging for so long, so thank you for bearing with me. A huge thank you to anon, rhmac12 and Miee to reviewing my last chapter it was wonderful to read your reviews, they honestly made my day. **


	18. Chapter 18

**Hermione**

Wrapped in a blanket I sat on Ron's bed watching Harry in the kitchenette making tea. I couldn't stop staring at him. After everything that had happened in the last week or so here we were, sat in the tent having tea like none of it had ever happened.

I didn't know whether I liked the idea of it or not. I didn't want to think about what had happened, it was best ignored but I couldn't believe that Ron and Harry would just go back to normal without so much of a word about that fact that I had been dead for a week.

Making tea; it was such a normal muggle thing to do, boiling water, a couple of tea bags, some milk and a sprinkling of sugar. It was English, what we turn to when we're unsure of what to do next; a comfort for the uncomfortable. Yet now it felt surreal, I couldn't possible be doing something as normal as having tea. I never though I would be able to do it again.

The tinkling of the spoon in the mugs woke me from my thoughts and I watched Harry gather up the cups and make his way towards me. I watched him holding the three cups walking carefully trying not to spill them. I thought how stupid it was it was only a drop of tea.

He passed one of the cups to Ron who was sat beside me and offered me another but I didn't move to take it. After a second of holding it in front of me he placed it on the table and dragged a stool across so he could sit in front of me.

Oh great they weren't going to ignore this whole thing they were just biding there time to talk to me and now it looked it was that time because the tea was dished out.

He sat on the stool, cupping his tea in his hands. I was still staring towards the kitchenette but I could make out what he was doing from the corner of my eye. He blew across the top of his cup making eyes at Ron. I could tell they were trying to make the other talk first.

I would have laughed at the exchange in different circumstances, but instead I tried to ignore it. I didn't want either one of them asking me questions about what had happened. I knew I had to tell them, but I wanted some time before I had to.

I hadn't had time yet to collect my thoughts. I had no idea how, or where to start. Everything was still swimming around my mind and I had no idea what order any of it came in.

It wasn't long before Ron got the short straw after losing their 'you start' glaring competition. Coughing quietly to catch my attention he edged forwards on the cot and shifted his body to face me. He meant business, so there would be no getting out of this for me. Resting his elbows on his knees he clasped his hands around his mug nervously.

Harry nervously glanced between Ron and I. I could tell he didn't want to be the one to ask me what had happened, but it was obvious he was dying to know how I managed to come back from the dead.

I wasn't entirely sure myself. Some how Dumbledore knew that I would need it one day, god knows how; but he knew, and it made me feel safer knowing that he was still looking out for us; even now. I hadn't managed to work out all the clues he left us yet but when the time was right it would all unfold, I had no doubt about it.

"Mione," his soft, caring voice and the use of my nickname suddenly made it hard for me to breath. I felt like I was having my heart pulled from my chest as he paused for a moment searching for his next words.

For a moment I could feel them both again and their concern for me was over whelming. I had to hurry up and explain what had happened, to put an end to their worry, but just finding my next breath was proving difficult.

It took I couple of forced, deep breaths before I could even start to form a sentence but when I did I found myself sitting with my mouth hanging open with not a sound coming from it.

The more I tried to force a word from my mouth the harder it was becoming to think of a word to say. In the end I snapped my mouth closed realising that I had just been sat there catching flies.

Pulling myself together I sieved through my thoughts and tried to pull out the one I was going to start with. Memories flipped through my mind as I remembered everything from the last couple of weeks. I shuddered at most of them. Then it came to me.

"I'm sorry." I ended up whispering. It was the only thing I could start with. I had run away in the middle of the night leaving them with nothing, no explanation, no note, just an empty bed. They had no idea where I had gone.

Then when they did know what had happened to me, they didn't know that there was a chance that I could have woken up, but then it would have been crueller on them if I hadn't woken after the week was up.

When I imagined myself waking up I always thought that I would find myself discarded somewhere by the dark lord, I thought sure that when Bellatrix found me she would take my body to him. Instead I was buried, in my own coffin, peacefully.

"Sorry?" Ron stuttered.

"Why are you sorry?" Harry chipped in looking at me, his eyes wide with confusion and concern. I sighed loudly.

**Thank you to rhmac12 for reviewing my last chapter. Hope you all enjoy, thanks for reading :) **


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